renv::use_python() removes the renv/profile file

[milanmlft]

When activating Python within a renv profile, for some reason the renv/profile file gets removed (see reprex below).
Not sure if this is intentional, but it seems like an undesired side effect.

Any ideas of why this happens?

renv::init(project = ".", bare = TRUE, restart = FALSE, profile = "dev")
fs::dir_tree(path = "renv", recurse = 1)
#> renv
#> ├── activate.R
#> ├── profile
#> └── profiles
#>     └── dev

renv::use_python()
#> * Creating virtual environment 'renv-python-3.11' ... Done!
#> * Updating Python packages ... Done!
#> * Activated Python 3.11.3 [virtualenv; ./renv/profiles/dev/renv/python/virtualenvs/renv-python-3.11]
fs::dir_tree(path = "renv", recurse = 1)
#> renv
#> ├── activate.R
#> ├── library
#> │   └── R-4.3
#> └── profiles
#>     └── dev

Session info

sessioninfo::session_info()
#> ─ Session info ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  setting  value
#>  version  R version 4.3.0 (2023-04-21)
#>  os       macOS Ventura 13.3.1
#>  system   aarch64, darwin20
#>  ui       X11
#>  language en_US.UTF-8
#>  collate  en_US.UTF-8
#>  ctype    en_US.UTF-8
#>  tz       Europe/London
#>  date     2023-05-02
#>  pandoc   3.1.2 @ /opt/homebrew/bin/ (via rmarkdown)
#> 
#> ─ Packages ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  ! package     * version date (UTC) lib source
#>  R cli           3.6.1   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R digest        0.6.31  <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R evaluate      0.20    <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R fastmap       1.1.1   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R fs            1.6.2   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R glue          1.6.2   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R htmltools     0.5.5   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R knitr         1.42    <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R lifecycle     1.0.3   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R magrittr      2.0.3   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R purrr         1.0.1   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R R.cache       0.16.0  <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R R.methodsS3   1.8.2   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R R.oo          1.25.0  <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R R.utils       2.12.2  <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  P renv          0.17.3  2023-04-06 [?] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
#>  R reprex        2.0.2   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R rlang         1.1.0   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R rmarkdown     2.21    <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R rstudioapi    0.14    <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R sessioninfo   1.2.2   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R styler        1.9.1   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R vctrs         0.6.2   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R withr         2.5.0   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R xfun          0.39    <NA>       [?] <NA>
#>  R yaml          2.3.7   <NA>       [?] <NA>
#> 
#>  [1] /private/var/folders/9z/4rs_sqvj38n8b02wv8p4j77h0000gn/T/RtmppBglPd/reprex-1286d5b74d1c1-brave-mara/renv/library/R-4.3/aarch64-apple-darwin20
#>  [2] /Users/milan/Library/Caches/org.R-project.R/R/renv/sandbox/R-4.3/aarch64-apple-darwin20/ac5c2659
#> 
#>  P ── Loaded and on-disk path mismatch.
#>  R ── Package was removed from disk.
#> 
#> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

[milanmlft]

Some more info: it seems that renv::use_python() deactivates the profile altogether:

renv::init(project = ".", bare = TRUE, restart = FALSE, profile = "dev")
Sys.getenv("RENV_PROFILE")
#> [1] "dev"
renv::use_python()
#> * Creating virtual environment 'renv-python-3.11' ... Done!
#> * Updating Python packages ... Done!
#> * Activated Python 3.11.3 [virtualenv; ./renv/profiles/dev/renv/python/virtualenvs/renv-python-3.11]
Sys.getenv("RENV_PROFILE")
#> [1] ""

[kevinushey]

Finally taking a look at this now -- the issue arises because renv calls activate() here:

renv/R/use-python.R

Line 290 in 11adabe

activate(project = project)

but renv::activate(), when called without arguments, reverts back to the default profile.

I think we should change the behavior of activate(), so that it preserves an existing profile (if any). Users can revert to the default profile if necessary with:

renv::activate(profile = "default")

[kevinushey]

Should be fixed via baba348; thanks for reporting!